Holding a Normal Conversation
Many mental health patients are sick of their doctors, friends and family members always asking them questions about their illness. Imagine always being asked, “Any auditory or visual hallucinations? Do you believe others can put thoughts into your mind? How’s your mood? Do you have any anxiety? How’s your sleep and appetite?” It not only feels robotic to ask them the same questions, but it also feels robotic for them to provide the same responses.
Don’t get me wrong; psychiatrists need to ask these questions to assess patients’ mental health, but we also need to hold normal conversations during our encounters. When we ask mental health patients the same questions every time we see them, it can make them feel like they are less than us. This is because we give them the impression that they are “different” and that we can’t hold normal conversations with them. Put yourself in their shoes and imagine how you would feel if someone comes in your room just for the sake of doing their job.
At the end of the day, mental illness or not, patients are still human beings who can hold normal conversations and discuss everyday events. You’ll bring much more happiness into their lives if you can discuss everyday events without jumping to questions that dig away at their symptoms. A patient will tell you their symptoms even if you don’t rush to those particular questions, because they are the ones suffering from the symptoms in the first place and need them addressed.
Mental Health Patients Matter
So let them discuss everyday events and address their symptoms at their own pace. This applies to whether you have a relationship or friendship with a patient; don’t look at them differently and definitely don’t treat them differently. Do you treat people with diabetes differently? The same applies with mental health patients. Even if they are psychotic but not dangerous to anyone, you can still say something as simple as, “Hi Leonard! Hope you have a good day.”
In conclusion, let’s normalize mental health by holding normal everyday conversations with each other. Forget the stigma and judgmental ways of the past; those need to be buried for good. Rather, let’s move forward together and create a worldwide platform that will be of help to everyone in need. This platform should be based on love, sincerity and honesty and the desire to improve and help one another.
Are you Ready? (This is Defeating Stigma Mindfully)
DSM (Defeating Stigma Mindfully) 